Touring Oriole Park at Camden Yards

This is post 2 in the week-long Summer Bucket List series. You can read how our family built our list here.

When my dear friend and college roommate spilled the beans that her family was planning a trip to MD this summer I was really excited and started to think of fun ideas for their visit. I knew we’d want a lot of time to just visit since it will likely be another few years until we’re together again. They’d never been to Baltimore so we knew we’d have to do something touristy, but I was stuck on ideas. We’ve lived in Maryland for nine years now but haven’t really done much exploring.

I received a copy of Kids Love Maryland by Michele Zavatsky last month and I’ve flipped through it a number of times. It is well laid out with tips for how to best use the book, right in the front pages. I even appreciated Michele’s mission statement;

…to arm families with information that they can use to create memories.

Within the pages of the book there were tons of ideas, all laid out by region. We had plenty to choose from for the visit, but certainly not enough time to do as much as we would have liked! Hidden in the Central Maryland portion was a little paragraph about tours of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

This was a GEM!

For just $6 each we’d get an hour+ tour of the grounds.

We were too late to purchase the tickets online, so we headed into the city in hopes of getting tickets at the window. We made it down to Baltimore just in time for the last tour of the day. It was HOT that day and they were preparing for a game that night, thankfully our tour guide was going to shift the order of the tour so we’d still get a chance to go into the dugout (on game days the final tour of the day is not guaranteed to see it, so check the times)!

We received lots of warning not to touch the grass and were schooled on why they pay such careful attention to the grounds-keeping. We learned it was only planted on a very thin layer of soil and layers of other materials that help it drain so efficiently.

We were able to walk along the warning track and over the logo. Even if you aren’t a baseball fan, you have to admit it is a pretty cool opportunity!

After walking through the Umpire’s Tunnel we went up to the Club level. We were able to sit in a luxury box, but I enjoyed sitting in the press box. Watching my boys stare out at the field from there was sweet!

I don’t love the game as much as they do, but watching their eyes through each stop on the tour was pretty amazing.

We learned about the stadium and property, and what all of its interesting history is. We even were shown where to find the home where Babe Ruth was born!

The only thing that could have made the tour better would be if the concession stand was open!

This was another surprise item from the Summer Bucket List. A little item we didn’t even realize was here. We know this tour is one that we’ll repeat with other friends and family that visit. The price was excellent, especially for how interesting it was. I could easily have the older boys use it as a starting point for an interest-led study! (Shhh… don’t tell them I want to make school-work out of it.)

Now I’m looking through the Kids Love Maryland guide to decide what our next adventure will be! There are quite a few things listed for right here in Carroll County! I think we’ll have to consider getting copies for our surrounding states too…

Be sure to visit the other participants to see how their families are celebrating summer!